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The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

U.S. soldiers on barges

LS, US soldier, in combat helmet, in FG of picture looking out to sea from boat. VS, boats, US army men on barges, soldiers posing for camera. LS, land, two flags planted in soil on hill- US flag and another flag that is white with a red cross. VS, EXT, army ships, unloading at beach head seen in a LS from a high angle, the Aleutian Islands (Kiska). American soldiers with packs climb hill, relax on hillside. VS, scenic panoramas of snow-covered mountains.

This 8mm footage was received from Joy Marshall, the cameraman's daughter, in November 1992. The cameraman, Harold L. Dunson, was a Chaplain and unit censor for a Medical Replacement Company in an Army division that liberated Dachau. In 1997, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum transferred the reels related to WWII and American soldiers in the European theater of war to video. Joy Marshall officially donated the 8mm film reels to the Museum in May 2005.

Record last modified: 2018-08-08 16:29:22
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1002527

Also in Harold L. Dunson Collection

The cameraman, Harold L. Dunson, was a Chaplain and unit censor for a Medical Replacement Company in an Army division that liberated Dachau. He captured several 8mm films of American soldiers in the European theater of war.

VS, family footage, shot stateside, the first scenes are at Fort Sumter and Fort Sumter State Park, Fort Sumter, NJ, USA. Young blonde girl (the donor, Joy Marshall) in front of cannon, climbing atop a stack of cannon balls, with mother, on boardwalk, overlooking ocean. CU, monument at Fort Sumter, NJ. 01:00:37 Possibly at the Christian Mission in Oklahoma, VS, woman picking up milk bottles from front porch, children in tow. Large group of children exiting church or school house, lining up and saluting camera. Playing on playground. VS, EXT, hillside, river visible below, trees, etc. New house, large plot of land, man on horseback, trotting inside corral fence.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. EXT, couple posing in countryside. Young blonde girl (the donor, Joy Marshall) posing. EXT, shots of trees, etc. Footage changes from color to black and white. Group of men working in a garage on a car. MS, man on horse and three children on mule (all three on the same mule). Children then start taking turns on horse and mule. MS, MLS, man at river's edge, VS of river, switches back to color footage. VS, men building structure in a clearing. Various generations of family posing beside the structure. EXT, winter scenes. EXT, more scenes outside church, children are getting older.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. CU, bell with engraved writing on it (not legible). VS, EXT, young man and older man hoisting bell on crane into position in bell tower. MCU, panning group of young women. MS, bell tolling. MCU, townspeople pulling on chord in bell tower, exiting church. VS, MS, MCU, LS, family on horseback in countryside, man taking photos with still camera. VS, locals piling in and out of pick-up truck, mostly children playing in truck, more children exiting church.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. MS, man baptizing woman in lake. MS, MCU two pigs on a dirt road, eating grass. MCU, young boy bathing in bucket, goats drinking bath water. MS, panning group portrait, young men and women outside church. MLS, men playing baseball. VS, men, women, children posing for camera. VS, men, women, children exiting church.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. MS, man in cowboy hat, swinging rope in front of a large US mailbox on a wooden post. Name on box reads: "Harold L. Dunson." MLS, panning shot, cinderblock church and courtyard. VS, children, women at church picnic. Children filing out of Church hall. Also teenagers, posing for group portrait. VS, youth racing on a lawn, sack races, three-legged races, etc.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. Screen image is mostly decomposition, but behind the emulsion loss and water damage there is an intermittent image of a group of adults in black robes- seems to be a church choir. Various people, friends, family, filing out of building, standing on street corner, talking, etc. VS, soldier and woman (also in military-type uniform) loading items and getting into a car with others. VS, little girls playing outside of a house.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. MCU, two gentlemen in suits pose in front of a parked car. VS, men in suits, women and children on streets, walking, talking, playing, etc. MS, panning shot- high angle of church pews, some people are seated in the church. MCU, church choir in robes, posing for group portrait on steps of building. VS, children playing together and playing with a puppy. VS, children with a teacher on a school playground. Older children, in park, also elderly people seated on benches in park.

The images are difficult to see due to severe decomposition and emulsion loss. Intermittent images. US Army soldier in helmet visible briefly along with images of European style homes (rustic, Chalet type style). Various glimpses of European architecture: pyres, steeples, towers, ornate columns, etc. Image of peasant wheeling (driving) horse-drawn cart. Civilians, locals walking along streets, mountains are visible in the BG. US Army men at camp, posing in front of their tents. Military plane flying overhead. VS, buildings, destruction and rubble. Shot of a small child with a woman. Local women posing with American soldiers for group shot. Sign in French for a barbershop. Barber pole is hanging outside shop next to sign. VS, soldiers at camp, soldiers walking through a town that has been destroyed by bombings, soldiers inspecting rubble at a demolished train station (no signs to identify location or name of train station).

US soldiers in combat gear and combat helmets boarding train, sitting in rail cars, eating and talking. VS, soldiers in combat helmets exiting building, walking towards camera. MLS, along roadside, civilians, local peasants with carts and all their belongings. Unclear if they are refugees leaving or returning home. VS, US soldiers hamming it up at base camp, two soldiers in SS uniforms engage in an Errol Flynn-style sword fight, mocking SS soldiers.

Women doing laundry in a large wash basin in an apartment building courtyard. VS, EXT. Buildings, castle, rooftops, houses, apartments- a survey of the architecture of the unidentified town. Civilians, man in US Army uniform. Local women pumping water. Sign in French reads: "Hotel du Roxy" Shot of large, ornate public fountain.

MS, Military Police in uniform, in formation, most likely American MPs. MS, African (possibly French West African Colonial) troops in formation. Uniform is light colored shirt, dark shorts and hat. All soldiers are carrying weapons. Banners, flags (unidentifiable in footage), military parade, procession, wreaths are laid at the foot of a large stone monument/memorial. Marching bands pass by many civilian bystanders.

VS, EXT, buildings, amphitheater, civilians, local market. VS, rubble, buildings in ruin. Sign in French at Cafe reads: "Bar Americain" American soldiers are at the bar with local civilians, mainly women. Civilians, male and female, walking through the streets of the unidentified town. People ride by on bicycles. More shots of destroyed, bombed out buildings.

VS, EXT. Along a canal. Barges, carrying metal drums are docked. Strings of international flags on barges. VS, EXT of rocky shoreline and the sea. CU, young girl on beach. LS, shot from above, most likely a hilltop, looking down to unidentified town and rooftops of homes below. More panning shots of trees, hills, the sea and the shoreline.

VS, EXT, panning a large garden. MS, civilians, mainly women in an unidentified town. Four women meet in the street, talk in front of a doorway or entrance to a neighbor's home. VS, townspeople, walking, talking, shopping. Large baguettes carried by women who walk past camera, FG, screen right. Women on bicycles, young girls socializing. LS, down street through the center of unidentified town that leads to the sea, a boat is visible, docked in the BG.

LS, EXT, sailboat in the water. Panning shot of dock, several boats, unidentified town, buildings, visible in BG. VS, EXT, the sea, sunbathers on the beach, large house by the sea, palm trees, women passing by in the courtyard in some sort of military uniform.

MS, American soldiers sitting on wooden benches in an open courtyard. VS, CUs, MCUs, American soldiers. MCU, man walking down a street in an unidentified town wearing a tuxedo an a top hat with a flower in it, he is smiling and waving at the camera. MCU, German soldier with a white armband, walking toward camera. German and American soldier pose together for camera, shake hands, smile. Soldiers leaving in army jeep. VS, from jeep, of countryside, red-roofed homes, farmland, cows, locals with wagons, etc.

EXT, traveling shot on a lake or a river. MCU, destroyed plane in clearing, destroyed army camp. VS, destroyed buildings, rubble, etc. 00:19:04 Barracks at Dachau? (unclear if these buildings were part of a camp or a farm). VS, unidentified town, buildings, bell tower, some civilians walking around. CU, bundles (probably victims' belongings) laying on ground in front of building, American soldiers milling about, more bundles/belongings, they seem to be smoldering.

On the Aleutian Islands/Kiska. CU, wooden sign in snow with illegible writing on it (camera is out of focus for this shot). MS, small cemetery, wooden crosses in snow. MS, soldier climbing down a tall wooden pole, seems to be a telephone pole. MCU, soldier climbing up pole, putting up phone lines at military base camp. VS, soldiers setting up camp in snow, shoveling snow, hamming it up for the camera, engage in a snowball fight, tackle each other in the snow, etc. MCU, American soldier holding up captured Japanese flag. The flag is very badly torn, and there is writing all over it. Two soldiers then pose with the same flag. VS, more LS, ships, ocean, snow-capped mountains.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. VS, young man and young woman riding a horse, riding bicycles, setting is the countryside. VS, ranch hands, sitting on a corral fence, corralling cows, branding cattle- many shots of this process, in CU, the branding iron makes the mark "JB". CU of branding, tying down the steer, etc.

At the Kiamichi Mountain Christian Mission in Nashoba, Oklahoma, where Harold Dunson and his family were sent as missionaries in 1947. VS, older woman with baby posing for camera, older man poses with a Doberman Pinscher and a young girl (the donor, Joy). VS, family life, postwar. Women posing with potted plants. Various families coming out of a church, most are well-dressed, some men exit church in suits, others in work clothes- dungarees and overalls. Children playing on the farm. VS, more footage of ranch hands with cattle and sheep. They are shearing the sheep. Women and children are also on hand. CU, sign reads: "Worship with Christ's Church, Un-denominational, Nashoba 4 ML, Help Restore the Church..." VS, church, steeple, children leaving the church, eating dixie cups (ice-cream). Children piling into back of pick-up truck/hay truck for a hay ride.

Three US Army soldiers in dress uniforms with combat helmets, posing in front of tent, walking toward camera, smiling. MCUs, on an airfield, prop plane, pilot winds propeller manually to start it, plane takes off, several bare-chested men are standing on airfield surrounding plane. VS, traveling shots from inside a moving vehicle, panning landscape of unidentified town, some destroyed buildings are evident. MS, US soldiers dressing/undressing at camp. CU, sign reads: "YOU ARE NOW ENTERING GERMANY; THERE WILL BE NO FRATERNIZATION WITH ANY GERMAN." A second sign reads: "FRANKREICH BRIDGE."

This is wartime footage shot stateside. Harold Dunson was stationed near Lake Steilacoom in Washington state before being shipped to the Aleutian Islands where his unit wintered. VS, two women with a toddler girl (the donor, Joy Marshall) playing in front yard of wood frame house. Playing with puppy, feeding ducks in the lake, etc. MCU, soldiers and their families getting out of car in the state capital of Oregon in Salem, all soldiers are in dress uniforms. Joy is wearing army hat with her dress. VS, large municipal building, woman and child pose on steps of building, insignia and words visible: "State of Oregon". VS, landscape, countryside, mountains, trees, forest, etc. Sign reads: "Help a Farmer Feed a Fighter". More municipal type buildings, Oregon state capital, etc.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.